Melton "Houdini - Centenary Air Show"

[Critical Reynolds No]

Anyone going this weekend? Would it be worth the visit? Might pop down for a look. Is it going to be a sh%t fight with the one entry and exit into the place?

Anything further to the flying display (or cancelled) other than:

Moth Minor
Winjeel
Yak-52
DR107
DG505 Elan Orian Glider
Drifter ultralight
Victa Airtourer
GA 8 Airvan
Tiger Moth
DG505 Elan Orion Glider
Pitts Special
CJ6 Nanchang
Robinson R22
Yak 9
Hawker Sea Fury
P40 Kittyhawk
T28 Trojan
Vampire Jet
P51 Mustang
:ok:

[VH-XXX]

Registration form here:

Flying In (http://www.centenaryairshow.com/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&catid=5&Itemid=4)

I note that they are asking for the insurance provider and policy details of the aircraft that are flying in. Interesting, I've never seen that as a requirement before for this kind of thing.

[Critical Reynolds No]

Maybe the hail storm incident a few weeks back scared them? Or maybe the local populace?

Will you be flying in triple x-ray?

[VH-XXX]

Read between the lines and the answer will be revealed ;)

[compressor stall]

Insurance requirement was there before the hailstorm.

See you there. :)

[Lasiorhinus]

Looks like a fun show. Stallie, is the CASA212 still going to be there?

[barleyhi]

From the Weekly Times March 19 1910, Harry Houdini is quoted after his flight

"I am the first man to have flown in Australia and I have fulfilled my greatest ambition.

I shall never forget my sublime and enthralling sensations and I only hope that my success will encourage other aviators to perservere and conquer the air. They will find aviation a pastime providing new and wonderful sensations such as no other pastime can afford."

What were your feelings while floating between heaven and earth?

"They were absolutely novel and I can scarcely describe them. But I felt a sensation of wonderful lightness and being independent of space and time.

You know the untrammelled experience of flight in a dream? It was like that. There was no resistance against it. The morning air sweet and fresh, felt like some life giving elixir or cordial, as it whistled and shrieked in my ears.

Behind me the propeller churned away making a terrible din as if protesting against my temerity. I shouted with joy but the spectators away beneath couldn't hear me.

Then out of the corner of my eye I noticed my engineer capering about and dancing on his hat, while certain semaphore signals prearranged told me it was time to return to earth."

How did you make your descent?

"I simply depressed the plane, shut off the motor power and glided to the ground as smoothly as a water hen glides to a pool.

It was as if the machine desired to impress me that all was perfect ease.

I know of no locomotion in which master and machine appear to have (may I use the word?) affinity. There is the mind of the man, composed and serene after the first exhilarating effect of rising, directing the flight and the immediate response of the mecanical bird.

I could even go to the length of saying that it was like a thing of life entering into one's desire to ride the air."



I guess we all have felt Houdini's feelings but I doubt I was so eloquent after my first solo in the Winjeel at Point Cook!

[NOSIGN]

The morning air sweet and fresh, felt like some life giving elixir or cordial, as it whistled and SHRIKED in my ears.


... that's better!

emphasis mine

[compressor stall]

I'm all in favour of bringing back the three Rs and the strap in English classes if it means people speak like that again. Such wonderful eloquence and beauty in speech. Sadly these days if you use a word over three syllables people like, look at you funny :}

Laso - yes, come past and say hi.

[denabol]

Compressor stall, I know you meant well, but I saw a stuttering class mate caned on both hands until they bled one day. He was screaming and stuttering after each stroke and yelled at to hold his hand steady for the next. He was flogged paralytic for being a disruption in class because he couldn't speak proper. You cannot flog learning into kids. But apparently you can make them whimper and shake. It was the cruelest thing I have ever seen done, I hated my english teacher for that. And he disappeared a few weeks later, without explanation. But no doubt dismissed or transferred since the kid was so badly hurt he walked his bike home unable to use the handle bars and his parents would have 'freaked' to borrow the language of my children.

[barleyhi]

NOSIGN

........500S ????

:ok::ok::ok:

[FRQ Charlie Bravo]

I am the first man to have flown in Australia and I have fulfilled my greatest ambition

The locals here in Adelaide (including a few newspapers) claim that two South Australians flew a few days before Houdini only a few miles from what is now YPPF but not in front of any big crowds and the second pilot ended up writing off the aircraft.

Apparently the debate continues with the museum folks.

FRQ CB

[UnderneathTheRadar]

Well, I'll go first.

Thought it was a disappointing turn-out - both in GA flights in (low cloud in the morning but not low enough to cause real issues except for the 337 stuck above it looking for holes) and families driving in - the number of food vans vs the business they were doing seemed to indicate that a lot more were expected.

Big gaps in the flying display.

But still, always worth going to see the Vampire, DC3 and the P51.

I hope, for their sakes, that the organisers made enough to have made it worth their while -it takes guts and a lot of hard work to take on something like that.

UTR

[Critical Reynolds No]

Agree with you UTR. I arrived from the Diggers REst side and was ushered past the aerodrome to a car park 2 kms away. Shuttle bus worked well and I thought there would be a huge crowd as well. Was it a lack of advertising? Was it a lack of interest? Did they need a V8 supercar to race down the dirt strip?
The gaps were annoying. Felt sorry for the bloke with the remote controlled Voison(sp) scale replica. Keep veering to the right. Did he get it up in the end?
I left after the Nanchang. What did I miss?

Was good to be very close to the active runway.

[A37575]

Houdini certainly waxed exceedingly lyrical for a short hop and not above 50 feet agl...

[Walrus 7]

It was a strange show. There was plenty of room for the crowd and I think that was part of the problem; everyone was so spread out and subsequently so was the crowd energy.

Early in the day the firebombers were there, but were ordered back to Ballarat before the show got started. That was a bit of a blow.

And there was no P-51 in attendance. There was, however, a P-40F.

The gaps in the program looked to me to be caused by not overlapping the take-offs and the displays. Normally you launch an act before it is due for display, so you always have one waiting in the sky at all times. That removes the holes in the program because there is always one waiting to come in when the other recovers.

However, air shows are very difficult things to organize as no aircraft is ever a monty to be in the show until it is actually in the air. Anyone who sticks their hand up to ringmaster an airshow is a legend in my books.

The Voisin model never got airborne.

Walrus

[Wanderin_dave]

Any pictures? I was going to go, but a brand new niece got in the way :ok:

[nitpicker330]

The "gap" in the show was caused by the RAAF aircraft both suffering radio failures after getting airborne from Point Cook requiring the Ring master to re-shuffle things around at the last minute.:{

There was no P51 because all the owners wanted payment to attend a show which was running for charity, it wasn't possible to pay them more than fuel.
( the RAAF Museum P51 was out for maintenance otherwise it would have come )

Overall the Boss did a bloody good job running his first airshow.:ok:

[Critical Reynolds No]

Thought the RAAFies were late as they were due to arrive between 11 & 12. I think the Pup arrived overhead about 1.30 or so?

Did the L-39 fly in? Or was it trucked? Impressive if it did fly in on a dirt strip.

[nitpicker330]

The L39 flew in from Bathurst via a refueling stop at Albury.

[VH-XXX]

Did it land, on the gravel at Melton?

[Captain Dart]

Yes it did, after several violations of controlled airspace. A 'wheel' from the L39 Owners' Club...erm, I mean the standards-setting Australian Warbirds Association Limited, was on board.

[nitpicker330]

mmmmmm enough said about the L39 and their standards!!

[VH-XXX]

Yes it did, after several violations of controlled airspace.


That would have been a laugh to listen to on VHF at those kind of speeds. Being so close to airspace there in terms of the lower limit of the class-C I am not at all surprised! Even the best of operators would find that airspace "tight" in that kind of aircraft, particularly if they arrived from the north east.

There is a spot not far to the east of Melton in the 1,500ft step where you always hear people being questioned over them being there as the controller knows that it's impossible to be there and at > 500ft AGL.

[nitpicker330]

yeah maybe so but...They flew VFR and planned BOL direct Melton!!

Then they had to ask Mel Centre for a Radar vector to find Melton. They had overflown it.:uhoh:

So much for the nice Garmin GNS I saw in the front seat!!

I'm sorry but some people shouldn't fly fast jets...........

[VH-XXX]

Wow! That is quite an attempted feat in that machine and you'd think probably not very safe considering the height of some of the terrain around there in relation to the lower level of class C plus a bit rude for other Class G users having that thing zoom past at a great rate of knots. If I was driving, it would be straight up, flat out for an hour and straight down again, not stuffing around at 1,000ft AGL looking for a CTAF somewhere.

You'd think that had they been IFR they would have descended in from the west and kept clear of Tulla which would surely be much safer and easier for everyone.

But then again, perhaps it can loiter along slowly and mingle well with other aircraft like the Drifters at Sunbury whose wing skins melted as they zoomed past.

I assume this is the aircraft you speak of:

http://i859.photobucket.com/albums/ab160/bc_j400/melton.jpg

[Critical Reynolds No]

Found this.
YouTube - Albatross Melton Centenary of Houdini's Flight (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJD9S74R8Eg)
Not sure if it took off though!!

[VH-XXX]

So it's still there then??

Would love to hear those stories some time Owen.

[nitpicker330]

Yes it departed after blowing half of the airfield away and nearly flipping a Birddog Cessna.